J. Rodney Quayle
John Rodney (Rod) Quayle FRS | |
---|---|
Born | 1926 |
Died | 2006 (aged 79–80) |
Spouse | Yvonne Sanderson |
Children | 2 |
Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society |
Scientific career | |
Theses |
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Doctoral advisors | Edward D. Hughes; Alexander R. Todd |
John Rodney (Rod) Quayle FRS (1926–2006) was a microbial biochemist, West Riding Professor of Microbiology and Head of Department at University of Sheffield (1965–1983) and then Vice-Chancellor of Bath University (1983–1992). He adopted techniques for dissecting enzymic reactions using radioactive carbon-14. He focused on microbes that used compounds containing one atom of carbon as their sources of energy and biomass.
Personal life and education
Quayle was born in Hoylake, Flintshire. When he was around 5, his father left the family and Quayle moved with his mother and older brother to Cilcain to live with his maternal grandparents, who supported the children financially. He attended Alun Grammar School in Mold.[1]
In 1943 he was award a County Scholarship for university study and he then studied for a B.Sc. degree in chemistry at University College of North Wales, Bangor that was awarded in 1946. He then studied physical organic chemistry for his doctoral degree supervised by
In 1951 he and Yvonne Sanderson were married. They had two children, a son and a daughter.[2]
He died 26 February 2006.
Career
Following his research at Cambridge, in 1953 Quayle moved to University of California, Berkeley, USA and worked with Melvin Calvin on understanding the biosynthesis of sugars in plants for two years. This involved the use of radioactive isotopes of carbon dioxide in rapid biochemical reactions, and he learnt the analytical techniques to identify the reaction products.[2][3] In 1955 he returned to the UK to a post at the UK government's Tropical Products Institute to work on pyrethrin insecticides.
However, he sought a post with more biochemical, rather than chemical, opportunity and through a chance meeting ended up collaborating with
His research group made use of radioactive labelling as well as isolation of
From 1967 Quayle advised the ICI company during the development of the Pruteen project that initially aimed to use methane to grow bacteria for use as animal feed. His suggestion that methanol would be a preferable feed-stock was important in development of the technology, as was his further advice.[1]
Quayle held several academic administrative posts. From 1974 until 1976 he was Dean of the Faculty of Science at University of Sheffield.[2] From 1983 until 1992 Quayle was Vice-Chancellor of University of Bath. His personal experience with applications of science to industry supported the development of applied science as well as research at Bath. He was a member of the UK National Committee for Microbiology from 1985 until 1990, that provided advice to the UK government.[1]
He retired in 1992.
Publications
Quayle was the author or co-author of 107 scientific publications.[4] Some of the most significant are:
- Quayle, J. R., Fuller, R. C., Benson, A. A. and Calvin, M. (1954) Enzymatic carboxylation of ribulose diphosphate. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 76 3610–3611
- J. R. Quayle (1980) Microbial assimilation of C-1 compounds. Biochemical Society Transactions 8 (1) 1 - 10
Awards
In 1978 Quayle was elected to the Royal Society and was also awarded the CIBA Medal and Prize of the Biochemical Society. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1989, and from the Universities of Bath and Sheffield in 1992.[5] He also served as president of the Society for General Microbiology from 1990 to 1993.[2] He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Bangor University in 1996.[1]
References
- ^ S2CID 88245387.
- ^ a b c d e f Kornberg, Hans (11 April 2006). "Professor Rodney Quayle - Leading microbiologist". The Independent. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- S2CID 83536564. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- S2CID 88245387. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
- ^ "Quayle; John Rodney (1926 - 2006)". The Royal Society. Retrieved 11 July 2021.